Utut to compete in Beijing

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian Grand Master (GM) Utut Adianto will compete in the category 16 chess tournament -- which the competitors' elo rating is above 2640 -- in Beijing from July 8 to July 18. This is the third category 16 tournament Utut will compete in after the Donner Memorial in Amsterdam in 1996 and the Japfa Classic Invitational Chess Tournament in Sanur, Bali, in April 2000.

The US$27,600 tournament -- including a first prize of $8,000, runner-up prize of $6,000 and $4,000 for the second runner-up -- will be competed in by 10 masters. Five are from China: GM Ye Hiangchuan (2670), China Open 2000 winner GM Xu Jun (2668), GM Peng Xiaomin (2657), GM Zhang Zhong (2636) and women's world champion GM Xie Jun (2568).

The other five are GM Nigel Short of England (2677), GM Alexei Dreev of Russia (2676), GM Viktor Bologan of Moldova (2641), GM Alexander Onischuk of Ukraine (2627) and Utut (2583).

The competition, which will take place at the Hua Yan hotel, will use a round robin system, with a total time of seven hours per match.

Utut said he was ready to perform in Beijing and promised to achievement more, compared to the result in Vung Tao, Vietnam, in May. (yan)